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Seminar Selling Frequently Asked Questions What is Seminar Selling? Is Seminar Selling For You? How Do I Begin? What Are The Elements Of A Good Seminar? How Do You Attract An Audience? Seminar Invitations? Ten Ways to Improve Your Seminar Invitation Preparing The Presentation The Well Presented Seminar The Follow Up Timetable For Seminar Planning How do I get more information or purchase your services? What we will do for you! What is Seminar Selling? Seminar selling is really nothing more than a form of mass marketing. It enables an individual or team to address at one time a large group of people with similar needs and interests, thereby multiplying time, efforts and results. We all know what it's like to make 20 presentations to 20 different people, repeating over and over each step in the sales process. Seminar selling eliminates the case by case repetition: yet the personal contact, the presenter/prospect rapport, is maintained, and in some cases enhanced. But even in addition to the time-saving elements, thre are other advantages to seminar selling. *Seminar attendees qualify themselves as interested prospects *The presenter in charge of the seminar places herself or himself in a posion which adds greatly to his or her professional stature, credibility, and marketing expertise. *The seminar is the perfect approach vehicle: It is non-threatening to the participants/ prospects and gives the presenter a unique opportunity to present his or her ideas without interuptions or objectioons. *The seminar if well presented can stir people to action. This, in essence, is the purpose of seminar selling. Seminar selling, then is a means of obtataining appointments that lead to sales. Implicit throughout the seminar of course, is the understanding that you can help attendees with the products or services you represent, but the only selling that takes place is that of yourself and your ideas. Back to top Is Seminar Selling For You? Some people are under the impression that seminar selling is only for the experienced veteran who works the technical or advanced markets. This is simply not true! Seminar sellling is for anyone and everyone, and seminar topics can rage from basic to highly technical. Seminar selling can be the means to reaching the markets you want to reach. It's dependent soley on the topic you want to address. Most of you reading this are probably not yet in the position to tackle seminar selling on a grand scale, and at this point, you probably shouldn't. The aim of this article is simply to provide the basic knowelege and instructions you need to be able to adopt seminar selling as a workable alternative to market and sell your products and services. Back to top How Do I Begin? Starting with the premise that the purpose of seminar selling is to gain appointments and sales, it's simply a matter of backing up from there and deciding what kind of appointments, how many sales you want to get, and how you can best go about it. The following guidelines may be helpful 1. What type of products or services appeals to you? 2. What kind of appointments are you looking for? 3. By how much do you want to increase your business? 4. How many referrals do you want to get? 5. How much time and effort are you willing to give to seminar selling? 6. How much money can you afford to spend? Answering these questions can help you set realistic goals and objectives so you can measure your results and determine if seminar selling is a worthwhile venture for you. Remember, your decisions will help define the seminar you plan. Back to top What Are The Elements Of A Good Seminar? No matter what kind of seminar you plan, no matter what subject you address, no matter whom your audience is, there are certain elements every good seminar contains. It should be targeted to a select group of people who have some common interestd or need. For example people who attend your church or socuial club, or people between the ages of 55 and 65, or a senior citizens group may be a good audience. It should be informative and educational, making attendence woth while. It should disturb complacency and stimulate action It should establish you a a professional problem solver It should open the door to future follow up appointments, and sales The Single or Team Approach Will you tackle seminar selling alone or in conjunction with others? There are advantages and disadvantages to both options. Obviously if you alone present the seminar, you alone reap the rewards. On the other hand, seminar selling is hard work. It requires planning and preparation, which can be a big burden to carry by yourself. Seminar selling should open the door to future follow up, appointments and sales. Realize too, that the individual who wants to solo has to have both technical expertise and the speaking skills the audience will demand. Not only will he or she have to know the subject matter, it will have to be professionally presented. When working in teams, the pooling of time, resources, knowlege and talent can turn seminar selling into something enjoyable - and profitable. Primary Decisions Early in the planning stages of your seminar, you will have to make some initial decisions to organize your presentation. These include: Choose a Topic/Market Determine Seminar Format Plan Audience Size Choose the appropriate Location Determine Date And Time Make some initial decision to organize your presentation Topic Disability Insurance Guaranteed Issue Tax Shelter Estate Planning Retiement Planning Employee Benefits Financial Planning Charitable Giving Money Management Market Existing Clientele Rated Individuals Teachers, Farmers Open To Any Group Small Business Owners Open To Any Group Charitable Organizations Women, Young People Other Seminars For Women For Singles For Two Income Falilies For Sole Proprieters For Partners For Pension Maximization For Annuities For Investments For Long Term Care Back to top How Do You Attract An Audience? Now you're ready to start prospecting for names. You're familiar with prospecting you do it every day (or at least you should) However this time the task isn't quite as difficult, since you know exactly whom to go after. The following should help you with the prospecting process. Contact community associations pertinent to your intended audience Ask for referrls from you clients you've already sold Consider doing a newspaper ad or radio spot to get word of your seminar out to the public Seek Co-op Advertising Funds Visit your public library for rosters and oth publications of local groups and businesses. These should detail both individuals and groups that, due to their associations, might be interested in your seminar. The Chambers of Commerce usually keeps data on local businesses and industries and their affiliations. The phone book, especially the yellow pages, provides another option for building a mailing list. The Criss Cross directory can help if you are planning a seminar for a specific neighborhood. Consider purchasing a mailing list. These lists are supplied by companies that specialize in pinpointing individuals and ggrouips according to almost any criteria you desire. Ask for referrals from clients you've already sold. Back to top Seminar Invitations? Once you have your list of prospective audience members and their addresses and other pertinent information, the next step is to design an invitation to be mailed to each individual. Baic information should be included such as: Subject of the seminar Date, time, and place Whom the seminar will benefit and Why? Who is speaking Whether any refreshments will be served Also you may want to include with every invitation a self addressed response card which would be returned to you to indicate whether or not that person will be attending. If you know the attendees telephone number call them individually to determine if they will be present. This will help you determine the number of partcipants who will attend and also instill a sense of urgency on the part of the invitees. On the response card, the recipient can also indicate that though she or he is unable to attend the subject of your seminar is of interest, and he or she would like to receive additional information. How many invitations Should You Mail Unfortunately there is no set formula for determining a standard ratio between the number of invitations you mail and the number of positive responses you receive. A good rule of thumb might be 10 times your seating capacity. However if you assume a conservative rate of return of say 6 percent to 8 percent you can work backwards from there. For example if you'd like to host your seminar for 50 people and you anticipate you'll have a 7 percent positive response rate, this means you'll have to send out approximately 430 invitations to get 30 to attend. For those recipients that express an interst but can not come, you can mail a form letter and follow up in the near future. Develop your presentation to address the needs of the participants. Plan to mail the invitations two to three weeks before the seminar to allow ample lead time. Back to top Ten Ways to Improve Your Seminar Invitation Howard J. Sewell Seminars have become one of the most popular means for small companies to generate new business. If you're a manager, work in a large metropolitan area and subscribe to one or two business publications, chances are you receive invitations to product seminars at least a few times a week, if not daily. Not all seminars are successful, however. With so many events taking place, even the best known firms can no longer simply announce a seminar and feel confident that people will show up. With lower response rates and higher costs - in travel, audio visual equipment, and hotel space - a less than successful event can drive your cost per lead sky-high. When the average person or business for example, receives dozens of direct mail invitations every month, how do you ensure that yours gets read? Or even delivered? Having designed and produced seminar invitations for dozens of companies, we have developed several rules of thumb to make each event as successful as possible. The following 10 rules are drawn from that experience, and many can be applied to all of your direct mail, not just seminar invitations. 1. Sell the Event, Not the Product. This is the most important rule to remember when designing a seminar invitation, yet failure to properly sell the event is a common error. Keep in mind that your invitation has one objective only — to get people to the event. Don't stuff your copy with superlatives about the product and then mention the seminar as an afterthought. Even if your product sounds great, if the recipient doesn't want to come to the seminar, you've failed. Period. Sell the benefits of your product in the context of the event. Rather than "our software cuts development time by 50 percent," say "Come to our free seminar and you'll learn how you can cut development time by 50 percent." 2. Make it Easy. Make responding to your invitation as simple as possible. That means accommodating anyone who might receive it. Some people think nothing of picking up the phone and dialing an 800 number. Others, particularly managers, would rather fill out a business reply card. Always provide both options. If you don't believe in reply cards, test your invitation with a card vs. without to gauge whether the reply card actually lifts response. But don't stop there. Add a fax number. Add an e-mail address, particularly if you're targeting an engineering audience. Nearly 90 percent of your responses will probably come either by phone or mail, but fax and e-mail are becoming more and more popular. Why risk excluding those potential customers who may not respond any other way? If you're on the World Wide Web, give people who visit your site a way to register for a seminar. But don't list a web address on your direct mail piece - unless you can track who the visitors are and how they heard about you. Otherwise, they may simply dial in, download a brochure and you'll never hear from them again. 3. Give It the Personal Touch. There are two reasons why people attend seminars. First, business incentives - learning how to increase productivity, cut costs, gain a competitive edge, etc. Second, personal incentives - mixing with peers, getting out of the office for a day, free breakfast, free coffee mug, etc. Most seminar invitations focus exclusively on the business benefits of attending the event. This ignores the fact that ultimately, attendees come to the seminar to enjoy the experience. What do they receive when they attend? A free information kit? A demo disk? A portfolio embossed with your company's name? Include a photograph of these items in the invitation. Mention a free breakfast (or lunch), if there is one. Describe the presentation itself: is it "fast moving", "exciting", "multimedia"? All of these make the event sound more attractive. 4. The More the Merrier. Include space on your reply card for the person to write in the names of colleagues who also might want to attend. This is an easy way to increase your registration and capture names for your database. Or, alternatively, ask them if there's anyone else in the organization to whom you can send an invitation. (Make sure you have a supply of blank invitations on hand.) 5. No Way Out. Most seminar reply cards include the line, "Sorry, I can't attend. Please send me information about your company/products." The reasoning is that people who don't want to attend the seminar might be more likely to respond to an information offer. Adding this option increases response, but it also decreases seminar attendance. Why? Because while people who would never even consider attending the seminar may ask for information, there's always a group of prospects who given the choice will opt to be lazy and request a brochure. What's your priority - more leads or more people in seats? If it's the latter, delete "I can't attend" from your reply cards. If you want more leads, then there's little reason to do a seminar. You'll get a higher response if you spend the same amount of money creating a white paper, for example, and using that as the offer instead. 6. Review the Reviews. Do the people who attend your seminars enjoy them? Do you get good reviews? Most companies hand out evaluation forms at their seminars, but then fail to leverage those comments to generate attendance at future events. Take some of the best quotes from your evaluation forms and add them to your invitation. If the quotes need "dressing up," add your own words and then call or fax the person who filled out the form and ask for their approval. You don't even have to quote them by name - just say (for example) "Senior Programmer, Fortune 500 Manufacturer." 7. Test, Test, Test. This rule applies to all direct mail, not just seminar invitations, but it has particular significance for seminars because these are often programs that companies repeat over time. Testing doesn't have to mean paying for two entirely different creative packages. It can be as simple as mailing five weeks in advance vs. six weeks; window envelope vs. closed-face envelope; first class vs. third class; meter vs. stamp. The bottom line is if you don't test, you're throwing money away, because even the slightest incremental response can boost the results of your next mailing. Even if this is a "one time only" event, test anyway. Chances are you can use what you learn for similar programs in the future. 8. Be Specific. Because seminar direct mail usually means writing the invitation long before the event has taken shape, the agenda can often end up as an afterthought. Yet, our experience shows this is often the first thing the recipient turns to when opening the invitation. After all, what better way to determine whether the event is worth attending? Beef up your agenda by doing more than listing times, speakers and topics. Add bullets that describe what the reader will learn in each session. (Remember, don't focus on the benefits of the product or technology, but on the benefits of the material to be presented.) 9. Target the Right Audience. Most seminar invitations aim too high. They target the CEO, CIO and CFO who 1) probably never attend seminars in the first place, and 2) aren't appropriate targets, anyway. Even if the CIO is the ultimate decision-maker, does he or she have to cope regularly with the problem your product solves? Target the highest level at which the problem is understood. Most high-tech sales are made bottom-up rather than top down. The engineers and developers who come to your seminar are the ones who will make the sale happen, even if they don't actually sign the check. Next time you rent a list, have the list manager divide it into two groups based on job function (MIS managers vs. developers, for example). Code them separately and track which group responds at a higher rate. 10. Keep it Simple. Contrary to what you might hear from your direct marketing agency, the objective of most business-to-business direct mail these days is not to get noticed. The person who "notices" direct mail is likely to be a mail clerk, so your invitation may get discarded before it even leaves the mail room. (Note: direct mail that gets noticed also tends to be more expensive.) No, your main objective should be to get your mail delivered. That means it has to make it past the mail room, the department secretary and the executive assistant. If you're targeting managers in large corporations, the more your invitation looks like "junk mail", the less chance it has of ending end up on that manager's desk. Test your most colorful, eye-catching invitation against an ordinary, two-color, personalized letter package. Use a live stamp and stay away from envelope copy. Type or laser the address instead of using a label. The results may surprise you. Conclusions A seminar can be a tough sell. Remember that when you invite a business professional to a seminar, you're asking for more than just a response - you're asking for four hours of someone's valuable time. In your invitation, focus on why the event is worth that investment. Describe how the person will learn how to solve a particular problem. Then use the event itself, rather than the invitation, to present your product as the solution. Back to top Preparing The Presentation Two fundamental principles will help define the content and format of your speech. 1. Analyze your audience You must consider who will be attending your seminar. Develop your presentation to address the needs of the participants. If you don't know the needs of the people you're presenting to, there are a variety of techniques you can use to identify this information. Interviews with individuals who represent a cross section of the seminar attendees. Research in consumer and trade magazines, newsletters, and newspapers Studies in you seminar's subject area Discussions with experts on seminar subject matter Discussions with your peers who have worked with individuals in your audience group Building a profile of your prospective audience is essental to the development of the seminar content. It does not necessary call for an in-depth investigation but you should gain enough information to be able to outline a program that aptly addresses the special needs of the seminar attendees. 2. Adopt A Problem / Solution or "How To" Format Either present your seminar by addressing a problem and offering a solution or use a "how to" format. One word of caution: Do not relay too much information to your seminar attendees, otherwise, they will not need or want a follow up interview. Examples of "how to" format include: "How to use Life Insurance to Fund Your Child's Education" "How To Pay Less Taxes" "How To Save Wisely For retirement" Sometime during your presentation, you may want to offer the attendees one hour of your time. This helps secure an appointment, as you'll see later. In your presentation, be sure to review and reinforce the highlights and main points of the seminar. You should again explain how the material relates to the group, or reinerate the problems and solutions you devised. Tips On Writing The Presentation Compose an outline Do not write above or below the level of the audience Keep your presentation to the topic at hand Incorpoate a lot of examples in your presentation Write as you would normally speak Be Yourself Allow time for questions Incorpoate visual aid if necessary Look relaxed even if you don't feel it Back to top The Well Presented Seminar Getting To Know The Attendees Before the seminar circulate among the attendees meeting as many as you can. This will help warm you up before making you presentation, and you will get a feel for your audience. Making The Presentation Here are a few hints to make yor presentation more effective. Do not read or memorize your speech. Be prepared Be aware of your body language Use good eye contact If your voice tires drink warm water If the room and audience are large, use a microphone Don't distract the audience through nervous habits such as jangling keys or money in your pocket, fidgeting with a pen, or shuffling your note cards. Be sure to dress appropriatelyand expect your speech to be good. Speak slowly and clearly, use humor sparingly and make a natural transition between speaking and showing your visuals Handout Materials You may want to use the companies good will items for this purpose. Be sure to attach your business card so attendees have a way of getting in touch with you after the seminar. You may also want to pass out a response sheet. The attendees fill this out during the seminar, and you collect it afterwards. On the response sheet, the participants indicate particular pints of interest he or she would like to follow up on or areas which need to be reviewed in person. You may also want to have space for the participants comments on the seminar and ask that they refer others who might be interested in future seminars. Critique of the Seminar You will probably find it useful to offer some type of evaluation sheet to your attendees to get their feedback on your presentation. Feel free to design your own materials for your particular seminar. The figures provided are merely examples to get you started. Handouts are very important. They serve not only as instructional aids but promote good will and can be used as sources of follow up business. Sample Seminar Outline Back to top The Follow Up In many ways the post seminar is the most imporytant aspect of the entire seminar process. If you expect seminar selling to pay off in increased production then you're going to have to follow up with each of the seminar attendees aggresively and effectively. First, look at the response sheets you collected. Note the subjects the participants checked off and what aspects of the seminar they want to follow up on. The Follow Up Approach Remember during the seminar you promised one hour of your time. That's the lead in you can use on the phone. "Mr. Jones, this is ___________,"(They should recognize the name, but if they don't, Say---) "You attended my seminar last night, and I just wanted to touch base with you and see if you wanted to sit down and talk with me. Would you like that hour I promised you? If you receive an objection over the phone, take the soft approach and counter with: That's fine, The seminar probably gave you a lot of new insights, and you're considering many options right now. I know what I'm capable of doing: you don't yet. But I promised I'd set down and talk to you. It will cost you nothing but an hour of your time which I know is valuable. I'll try not to waste it. Would next Tuesday be a good time to meet? The day after the seminar, begin making your follow up calls. Using The Response Sheet To Your Best Advantage The repsonse sheet you design for your seminar should elicit the kind of information that will give you an effective approach for the post seminar follow up. When you make your follow up calls , have the participant's response sheet in front of you. That way you know what he or she is interested in. Simply checking off something on the sheet indicates this person is interested in hearing or knowing more. And it's a way of fact finding and qualifying even before meeting on a one to one basis. The Follow Up Appointment You may want to start off the initial appointment with "Nice to see you again, Jim I trust you found the seminar information. We didn't have much of a chance to talk that night, so now I'm, here to listen to you and see if there's anything I can do to help you. You may find that not all individuals will fill in a response sheet for you. You should call these people anyway and request an appointment. Most of them will see you. The important thing is to follow up completely and thoughly with everyone who attended the seminar. How Successful Was The Seminar? Determining the overall success of your seminar must be a judgement based on how successfully you were able to follow up with each participant. Remember the purpose of seminar selling: to gain appointments that lead to sales. Once you have gained an appointment with a seminar attendee, your back on familiar grond. You can concentrate on what you do best, selling Don't be trapped into thinking the seminar was a success if the partcipants enjoyed it. Your seminar is only a success if it pays off - in future dollars and cents - for you! A Final Word To those representatives who, because of inexperience or fear of the unknown are hesitant to give seminar selling a try, take this advice. Give it a try. You are not going to know whether you're up to the challenges of seminar selling until you make the first attempt. Don't give up before you start. Read all you can, study all you can, observe others who give seminars-and then try it yourself. One of the secrets of seminar selling is knowing that once you are in front of an audience, once you've put yourself on a platform, or behind a microphone, you're in charge, you're in control. People don't expect you to fail, why should they? And chance are you won't! The pitfalls to seminar selling are never as bad as you think, the results can be greater than you imagine. Back to top Timetable For Seminar Planning Week One Determine objectives for yourself and your seminar Select a seminar associate (if applicable) Establish A Budget Week Two Select you topic market Research Your Market Research you topic Begin to write the presentation Plan post seminar follow up Begin prospecting for names / order mailing lists Week Three Determine seminar format, date and time Make the rounds of possible seminar sites Select site for your seminar Week Four Continue prospecting for names Week Five Continue to prospect for names Week Six Design seminar invitation and response card Continue prospecting for names Week Seven Mail Invitations and response cards Design handout materials Place newspaper advertisement (if applicable) Week Eight Finish presentation - reherse Make arrangements for any audio visual equipment you may need Week Nine Finalize room arrangements Confirm final details with hosting facility Review seminar check list Present your seminar Week Ten Conduct post seminar follow up Back to top You must be an active member to take this sales course Act Now! 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